Monday, August 30, 2010

It's still in 5.8mm caliber, but at least now has a thumb operated selector/safety and a set of small accessory mounting rails on the front sight base. Plus gotten rid of that stupid trigger guard forward grip on the original variant. Timothy Yan

Sunday, August 29, 2010

On August 16, a flight regiment of the East China Sea Fleet under the Navy of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army carried out low-altitude mass-bombing training on a water range located between China’s Jiangsu Province and Anhui Province. According to Li Dashan, political commissar of the regiment, the low-altitude mass bombing features high demands and risks. In recent years, the regiment accomplished training on highly-difficult tactical subjects of pelagic attack, maritime extra-low bombing, mass bombing in formation and maritime mine-laying, so as to acquire the masterly skills for future sea and air combat.

Thursday, August 26, 2010

While China is suffering from the worst flood in decade that left more than 2,100 Chinese dead and twelve million people evacuated from their homes nationwide. It sends more aid to Pakistan.

Members of the China International Search and Rescue Team (CISAR) gather before leaving for Pakistan in Beijing, Aug. 26, 2010. The 55-member Chinese rescue team left here for Pakistan Thursday morning to help with relief efforts following devastating floods in the south Asian country. (Xinhua/Zhang Duo)

BEIJING, Aug. 25 (Xinhua) -- More relief supplies, worth 20 million yuan (2.94 million U.S. dollars), have been sent from China to flood-hit Pakistan, China's Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said in a statement Wednesday.

The shipments mainly contained urgently-needed daily necessities, including grain, cooking oil, flour, sugar, salt and medicine, the ministry said in a brief notice on its website.

The supplies are to be transported through a land route to the Sust dry port near the Pakistan-China border from Kashgar in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, the statement said.

However, the ministry did not say when the supplies would arrive, as workers were still rushing to repair the road linking Kashgar and Khunjerab Pass.

China is one the first countries to respond to the relief needs of Pakistan when it was hit by the worst floods in 81 years. China's first delivery of aid, worth 10 million yuan, was delivered on Aug. 4. So far, 40 million yuan worth of supplies provided by China have arrived in Pakistan.

China decided to offer an additional 60 million yuan of relief supplies to Pakistan, MOC official Chong Quan announced Wednesday while meeting with Masood Khan, Pakistani ambassador to China.

Masood Khan, on behalf of the Pakistani government and people, expressed his gratitude for China's assistance, saying the food, tents and medicine provided by the Chinese government were Pakistan's most urgently needed materials.Editor: Lin Zhi

China has announced that it has successfully launched a domestically-made submarine in the South China Sea, Chinese state media reported today.

CCTV news channel broadcast the above video of submariners on the maiden voyage of the vessel, including the moment a robot planted a Chinese national flag at the bottom of the South China Sea.

The China-made submarine reached depths of more than two miles, according to CCTV.

China has declared that it is the fifth country to produce a submarine that can withstand depths of more than two miles below sea level, after the United States, Russia, France, and Japan.

Speaking at a briefing on Thursday, Ma Yanhe, head of social development at the Ministry of Technology said the test was successfully carried out.

"The submarine made a record of operating under sea for 9 hours and 3 minutes, so the the equipment on board successfully passed the test and operated at depths of more than 3,000 metres and met the relevant standards," Ma said.

BEIJING (Reuters) – Chinese naval forces have carried out a series of drills in the South China Sea, the Defense Ministry said on Thursday, strategic waters which are disputed by a number of Southeast Asia countries.

The exercises were overseen by General Chen Bingde, Chief of General Staff for the three-million-strong People's Liberation Army, the Defense Ministry said on its website (www.mod.gov.cn).

The ministry's statement did not say exactly where the drills took place or how many ships or sailors participated. It said guided missiles were fired and anti-aircraft attacks simulated, as well as electromagnetic interference.

"Pay close attention to changes in the development of the mission, soundly prepare for combat," the ministry paraphrased Chen as saying.

China was furious after it was ambushed at Asia's top security forum last week by a discussion of sensitive territorial claims in the South China Sea, an area rich in energy and key for shipping. China has long-standing territorial disputes there with Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan, the Philippines and Vietnam.

Beijing had kept serious discussion of the South China Sea off the agenda of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) for a decade and a half. But last week in a meeting in Hanoi, 12 of the 27 members -- including some with no direct stake in the territorial disputes -- raised maritime issues.

China's Foreign Ministry accused U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton of a barely disguised assault on Chinese interests by bringing up the topic.

Chinese state media has since weighed in, warning the United States to alter its policy to take account of China's role as a major player on the world stage if it wants to avoid friction and instability.

U.S.-China security ties have also been strained over joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises this week directed at North Korea but held in seas near China.

China's own growing military clout has worried many of its neighbours, including Japan and Taiwan, the self-ruled island Beijing claims as its own.

Vietnam recently ordered six Kilo-class diesel submarines from Russia as part of a major arms purchase that analysts see as an attempt to counterbalance China's growing naval reach in the region.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)

Report from the PLA Daily:

Naval troops conduct exercise on sea frontier

(Source: China Military Online) 2010-07-30

The participating warship is launching missiles. The combined-arms actual-troop and live-shell exercise organized by the South China Sea Fleet (SCSF) under the Navy of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army was successfully held in a sea area of the South China Sea on July 26. By giving prominence to the actual use of arms in combined sea control, anti-missile air defense and air control operation in complicated electromagnetic environment, the exercise made new attainments in the study and exploration of such aspects as the construction of complicated electromagnetic environment and information control mechanism as well as the organization and training modes facilitating the generation of systematic combat capability based on the information system.

The satellite, which was launched on a Long March 2-D carrier rocket, had entered into the preset orbit, according to the center.

The satellite, developed by a company under the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), would be mainly used to conduct scientific experiments, carry out surveys on land resources, and mapping, said a statement on the Ministry of National Defense website.

The remote sensing information and test results from the satellite would promote the country's scientific research and economic development, said the statement.

The launch was the 128th for China's Long March series of rockets since April 24, 1970, when a Long March-1 rocket successfully sent the country's first satellite Dongfanghong-1 into the space.

Editor:Cui Xinwen

A mapping satellite, "Mapping Satellite - I," is launched from the northwestern Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, at 3:10 p.m. (Beijing time) on Aug. 24, 2010. The satellite, which was launched on a Long March 2-D carrier rocket, had entered into the preset orbit, according to the center. (Xinhua/Liang Jie)

The reporter learned from the Information Affairs Bureau of the Ministry of Defense (MOD) that on the morning of August 20, the aid-Russia humanitarian materials raised by the Chinese military were air freighted to Russia at the Beijing Capital International Airport. After getting to Shenyang, the cargo aircraft will be loaded with other disaster relief materials and then continue to fly to Moscow at around 13:00.

This batch of materials, which worth a total value of 20 million yuan, include back-carried impulse fire extinguisher, field compressor, fire-fighting combat and training uniform, positive pressure fire-fighting air breathing apparatus and gas musk with a total weight of 38 tons.

Wu Yuzhang, deputy director of the Comprehensive Affairs Bureau of the Foreign Affairs Office of the MOD, was quoted as saying: “the Chinese military is in charge of the raising and transporting of these humanitarian disaster relief materials provided by the Chinese government.”

Wu Yuzhang also noted that within 72 hours after the Russian side had confirmed the material list, the officers and men of the Quartermaster, Materials and POL Department and the Military Transportation Department of the General Logistics Department (GLD) of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army well accomplished the raising and transportation tasks swiftly. Wu expected this batch of humanitarian disaster relief materials could play due role in the campaign of the Russian people and military in putting out the forest fire.

This batch of aid materials arrived in Moscow at 21:00 on August 20 (17:00 on August 20, local time).

Fourteen Chinese scientists were flown in by helicopter from icebreaker the Xuelong, or Snow Dragon, which carried a Chinese exploration team and reached a point at 88.22 degrees north latitude and 177.20 degrees west longitude.

The Chinese scientists' arrival point marks the Arctic Ocean's furthest north they have ever reached.

The scientists carried out a series of research activities at the Pole, including collecting sea ice and seawater samples and ecological observation.